Oscars TV audience plummets to new low

Chloe Zhao with the best picture and best director Oscars for Nomadland. The ceremony’s TV viewing audience dropped to a new low this year (Chris Pizzello/AP)

The Academy Awards television audience in the US plunged to 9.85 million viewers, less than half the Oscars’ previous low and continuing a startling trend of viewer tune out for awards shows.

The Nielsen company’s preliminary estimate shows the audience that watched Nomadland win best picture on ABC on Sunday was 58% below last year’s tally of 23.6 million, which had set the previous record for least-watched Oscars telecast.